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February 22nd, the sky was gloomy. Guangxi had entered the rainy season. Under the sunlight, the lush greenery of Dayao Mountain was also shrouded in a gloomy feeling. Wei Ze wiped the sweat off his forehead and placed the two bamboo baskets on the bamboo pole on his shoulder on top of the mountain-like pile of supplies.
The mountain breeze carried the fresh scent of the forest in spring. The trees, grass, mountain flowers, and dense humidity. Normally, when one looked at the mountain, it would feel like the entire mountain was shrouded in thick clouds. Now that Vézé was standing under the thick clouds, he felt it even more strongly.
Marshal Zhang Yingchen had set up communication posts along the way according to the rules. The communication stations could communicate with each other at a faster speed. They could even send people to deliver letters at night. After the victory, this communication line was immediately activated. In just two days, the news from Yongan City reached Vézé.
Zhang Yingchen ran to Vézé while panting. "Commander Wei, Prince Nan has already sent three brothers of a soldier to receive us."
After saying this, Zhang Yingchen couldn't help but get closer. He lowered his voice and said joyfully, "Commander Wei, I'm afraid the brothers of those three soldiers will be under your command in the future."
Vézé didn't dislike such a jumping guy at all. Vézé remembered when he was a student union cadre. Even if he was just a literature cadre, it was still considered a promotion. Naturally, he was overjoyed. Therefore, Vézé smiled and said, "Yingchen, now that we're moving the spoils, the brothers of those three soldiers will be under my command. But when I return to Yongan, the brothers of those three soldiers will still be under Prince Nan's command. Think about it, this is a different matter. "
Zhang Yingchen didn't have much experience in the system and had never suffered in this aspect. He didn't hear the warning in Vézé's words and said nonchalantly, "Commander Wei, when you return to Yongan, you'll be promoted to Brigade Marshal. I'll have to give you three brothers of a soldier."
"Ying Chen!" Vézé stopped smiling, "You just said that if I want to be promoted to Brigade Marshal, I have to return to Yongan City first. But if I return to Yongan City with heavy casualties, do you think I can still be promoted to a brigade marshal? I'm afraid the Southern Prince will chop off my head. "
Hearing this, Zhang Yingchen was stunned, "Commander Wei, we have won a great battle, how can we lose our armor!"
"That's because we've won a great battle in the past. We haven't moved these spoils back to Yongan City yet. If we are intercepted by the Qing Army on the way, what should we do? The Qing Army wouldn't let us return to Yong 'an so easily. If we were attacked by a large Qing Army, for the sake of our brothers' lives, I would have no choice but to lead everyone back to Yong 'an first. If we return to Yongan City with our tails between our legs, what's the point of winning the war? "Vézé advised seriously." Yingchen, you have to finish what you started. We've only drawn a line of the eight characters now. "
Zhang Yingchen was a smart man. Hearing Vézé's words, he quickly calmed down. He said seriously, "I'll send someone to scout now. No matter what, we can't let the Qing Army ambush us."
"Go quickly." Vézé agreed with Zhang Yingchen's opinion. When they robbed the rations, Vézé and his men were on the offensive side, while the Qing Army was on the defensive side. Now that the roles had changed, Vézé and his men were carrying the burden of the spoils, their movements were greatly restricted.
On the afternoon of the 22nd, the brothers of the three soldiers who came to rescue finally arrived. Looking at the mountainous pile of resources, he was also shocked. More than twenty thousand catties of supplies, half of them were rations. There were also more than a thousand catties of salt, and more than a thousand catties of wine and meat. There were also more than three thousand catties of gunpowder and lead, while the rest consisted of cloth and other military supplies.
Vézé immediately called for a meeting. "What the city urgently needs right now is salt, gunpowder, and lead. On the other hand, we don't lack cloth and rations. The Zhu Clan brothers and Qing Yao definitely won't let these things go so easily. I think that we should ask the brothers who just arrived to bring these several thousand catties of supplies back to Yong 'an first. Once these important items have been sent back to Yong 'an, you can come back to collect the other rations and other supplies. What do you all think? "
This request clearly benefited the brothers of the three soldiers. If they could transport the spoils back to Yong 'an, it would naturally be a great merit. Even if Vézé managed to seize them, as long as Vézé wasn't able to return to Yong 'an, the three soldiers would still be the first to receive the rewards. There was no reason for the brothers to refuse such a good opportunity. The three Guard Captains immediately agreed.
With wine, meat, and enough rations, Vézé began to cook. He let the three soldiers eat until their mouths were full of grease before sending them off. Wei Changrong didn't quite understand as he watched his brothers carry ten or so catties of supplies back to Yong 'an. "Fourth Uncle … … Soldier Captain, why are you doing this? It's obvious that you want those brothers to get all the credit. "
Vézé replied, "Changrong, I want to take all of the credit this time, so I can't bear to give up on these unimportant things. But if we are attacked by the Qing Army on the way back, we won't even be able to keep half of the credit. That's why I'm sending back the most important items, such as salt, gunpowder, and lead. "
"Then why aren't we the ones sending them back?" Wei Changrong was somewhat indignant.
Vézé was very familiar with Wei Changrong's scheme, but when working in the military, one needed to be able to look at the bigger picture. Blindly thinking for oneself wasn't a good thing. He replied, "Since we were the ones who captured them, we naturally have to take care of them until the end. What's the point of leaving the three soldiers' brothers here? Changrong, sometimes it's not about being at a disadvantage, it's about being responsible. If the three soldiers' brothers are under my command in the future, they will naturally feel that they won't be at a disadvantage if they follow me. Even if they don't follow me, if we fight together in the future, these brothers won't think that I, Vézé, have done anything wrong. We aren't afraid of offending people, but there's no need to intentionally offend people. "
Wei Changrong thought about it and roughly understood Vézé's thoughts. "Soldier Captain, I've thought too little."
That was enough. Vézé didn't comment on Wei Changrong and changed the topic. "Mm! Oh yes, did you remember the words I asked you to write down? "
This time, Wei Changrong's expression immediately turned ugly. "I didn't."
"Ai!" Vézé sighed. In the history books he read, it was written that the Red Army spent a lot of effort to strengthen cultural education. Now Vézé finally understood why the Red Army spent so much effort and came up with countless methods. During this intense war, where would they have the energy to learn while fighting? Even if Vézé knew a lot of interesting methods, he didn't dare to use those experiences directly. Before becoming a brigade marshal, Vézé couldn't show off at all.
Thinking of this, Vézé suddenly came up with another idea. In history, there was a phrase to describe some treacherous officials as "great treacherous officials pretending to be loyal". Based on Vézé's current actions, he might really be suspicious. Being loyal to the Taiping Rebellion was Vézé's method, not Vézé's goal. The only thing Vézé and the Taiping Rebellion had in common was to overthrow Manchu Qing. Thinking of this, Vézé couldn't help but smile bitterly. He sighed in his heart. "People … just can't help themselves."
In any case, more than four thousand kilograms of goods were transported. More than three hundred brothers, including food and drink, were left with less than fourteen thousand kilograms of goods. The intensity of the transportation work was greatly reduced. Since the important things were transported first, Vézé didn't urge his brothers to hurry. Instead, he began to strengthen the vigilance and restore the strength of the troops. At the same time, he strengthened the cultural education.
Lining up and counting were the most basic things. Left, right, up, down, front, back, south, east, west, heaven and earth, and how to write from one to ten. It took two days to teach such simple things, but they didn't learn anything.
It wasn't that the soldiers refused to learn, but the soldiers had different accents, so it was a problem to unify them into a consistent language. This couldn't be blamed on the soldiers. The brothers who came from different places all had different accents. If the brothers didn't speak Hunan dialect, Vézé wouldn't have been able to deceive the Qing Army.
Since they couldn't unify their accents, the only thing left was to forcefully educate them with words. This time, Vézé encountered a new problem. There were only about twenty words that were closely related to real life, but the soldiers who hadn't learned to read couldn't remember them no matter how hard they tried. Vézé didn't know what to say. There were only a few words, but Vézé felt that children in the 21st century could memorize them in two days.
There was another problem. Some of the more urgent soldiers could remember these words, but they couldn't connect the words with reality. Encountering this problem, Vézé finally understood.
In the 21st century, most parents in China began to teach their children how to count before they turned two years old. Many children could count from one to a hundred when they were three years old, and after repeated practice, they even had the concept of numbers and words. In the process of growing up, these concepts were repeatedly trained and applied in school, at home, and in life. Gradually, they became tools that they were completely used to.
There were more than two hundred brothers under Vézé, ranging from teenagers to over thirty years old. For most of them, this was the first time that they had truly introduced words and mathematics into their lives. They were forced to establish a connection between words and numbers, and for the first time, they were able to use numbers and words to organize their thoughts.
This was equivalent to forcibly inserting a brand new system into their world. If children learned this from a young age, they would be used to it before they felt the pain. For the Taiping army soldiers, they could only deeply feel the pain of this process.
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